Rapists on the loose in Ekiti

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Just as the preponderance of rape and other gender based violence are eliciting concern among security agencies and gender movements across the country, facts are beginning to emerge on why the menace that is debasing womanhood are on the upward swing, despite much legislation put in place to check the scourge.

Ekiti state is no exception, as the crime ranks among the highest in the state, Mr Alberto Adeyemi, Police Public Relations Officer in the state, told Vanguard that from January this year to October alone, 29 rape cases and defilement of underaged have been recorded. He added that all the offenders had been charged to court, yet none of them has been sentenced.

A situation, the feminist movement in the state described as not only worrisome but dangerous. Ekiti prides itself as one of the states in the federation with laws that protect women and children from all forms of abuse. As far back as 2011, the state had enacted gender-based violence prohibition law to complement the already existing laws that prescribed a minimum of 7 years to a life sentence for offenders.

Psychological trauma

Despite the stringent laws, yet it beats the imagination of many in the state that the obnoxious crime still remains very rife. At a public lecture organised by the Women and Children Development and Health Research Initiative (WCDHRI) in Ado Ekiti recently, experts and security agents identified reasons why offenders still prowl the streets seeking for their prey, while their victims still suffer psychological trauma in silence.

To Adeyemi, the Police Public Relation Officer, victims are not helping matters, some for fear of stigmatization, preferred to keep quiet, while some would appeal to the Police to withdraw the matter midway, because of intervention from some quarters.

According to the Chairperson of International Federation of Women Lawyers in the state, Mrs. Rita Ilevbare, “it is very common to see perpetrators using traditional rulers, religious leaders, community leaders and influential people in the society to beg the victim and her family not to prosecute offenders.”

She also posited that weak legal sanction, has been making offenders to escape the full weight of the law, “Rape victims in Nigeria face hostilities from family, friends and the society, it is unfortunate that the perpetrator who should be ashamed, stigmatized and ostracized is let off the hook while the victim is subject to a second round of violence. Most victims will rather choose to suffer in pain and anguish due to the social stigma attached to rape.

She said further that the inaction of the police was not helping matters, because “the Police is not adequately equipped both in human and material resources to effectively investigate rape cases.

Forensic evidence

Apart from the absence of laboratories at most police stations to preserve forensic evidence, the attitude of police officers to rape victims is very appalling. While a university don, Professor Olabisi Aina, noted that lack of social and cultural commitment to fight against gender-based violence was part of the contributing factors to the menace.

She also said lack of political will and weak technical support for the implementation of laws, fuels the recurring case of rape and gender-based violence in parts of the country.

Prof. Aina of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, Ekiti State University (EKSU) Ado Ekiti said, “poor public awareness on the existence of legislation and policies against gender based violence” was responsible for the increased incidence of the crime in Ekiti.

She said Nigerians must admit that gender-based violence occurs and that “we must understand that it affects us all” so as to be able to collectively tackle the scourge. The President of WCDHRI, Dr. Pius Idowu Adeojo said the female gender had been vulnerable to sexual violence globally, stressing that “rape is the most devastating, all-pervasive form of gender based violence with both short and long term effects.”

Dr. Adeojo said WCDHRI was therefore out “to sensitise the community about rape and methods of prevention, to educate the members of the society on the actions to take and procedures to follow in the period immediately following rape or sexual assault and to challenge the cogs in the wheel of procedures that prosecutes sex offenders and to provide an outlet for care, support and justice for victims of rape.”

Justice for victims

He called on government, non-governmental organisations and all stakeholders “to work in unison to prevent all forms of sexual abuse/violence and offer assistance to victims of sexual abuse or rape.”

The Ekiti State Commissioner for Women Affairs, Gender Empowerment and Social Development, Mrs. Olayinka Ogundayomi, commended WCDHRI for the public lecture to sensitise Nigerians on rape and sexual abuse and said her ministry and other stakeholders had recorded successes at eradicating rape in our society.

Ogundayomi noted that the ministry had recorded “one conviction while five other cases are still pending in law courts.” She added that survivors of the crime had been given support thorugh the state’s “Gender Based Intervention Scheme and integrated back to the society.”

She charged the people of the state not to keep quiet when the crime occurred, saying when people failed “to react with equal display of disgust, we unwittingly encourage this act to become further entrenched in our daily lives.”

Ilevbare, concluded by quoting Justice Nwali Ngwuta of the Supreme Court; “I think that the severity of punishment for rape, with particular reference to statutory variety, should rank next to capital punishment,” adding that having carnal knowledge of a girl under 14 years, with or without her consent or having carnal knowledge of a girl with unsound mind should be treated with all the seriousness it deserves.

Source: Vanguard